Ticket Offers, Tributes As World Soccer Toasts Thai Cave Boys’ Rescue

With victory dedications, soccer shirts and offers of tours and match tickets, some of soccer’s biggest names are cheering the rescue of 12 Thai boys and their coach from a flooded cave, a drama as gripping as the World Cup now at the semi-final stage.

The last of the “Wild Boars” football team and their coach were brought out of the cave late on Tuesday after a dangerous rescue that unleashed joy across Thailand, and earned the boys celebrity plaudits from Italy and Spain to England and Brazil.

France midfielder Paul Pogba called them “heroes of the day” and dedicated to them his country’s 1-0 win over Belgium, a victory that catapulted Les Bleus into the World Cup final for the first time in 12 years.